The Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media “7amleh” , which has extensive ties to organizations involved in the support and funding of terrorism, is a “trusted partner” of Meta, which provides the organization with funding and allows it to influence Meta’s practices.
7amleh is a Haifa-based NGO whose stated objective is “enabling Palestinian and Arab civil society to effectively utilize the tools of digital advocacy through professional capacity building, defending digital rights, and building influential digital media campaigns.”
While the organization says it is involved in training and advocacy, research into the organization demonstrates that 7amleh has ties to organizations that are closely linked to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), which makes its “Trusted Partner” status with Meta troubling.
7amleh hosted a three-day conference in mid-May with representatives from the world’s leading tech platforms, US Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, and individuals with ties to terrorism.
Several of the organizations 7amleh collaborates with are proscribed terror organizations in Israel.
On October 22, 2021, in accordance with the Israeli Counter-Terrorism Law of 2016, Israel designated six supposed human rights organizations that are closely linked to the PFLP, a designated terror organization in Israel, the US, the European Union, Australia, Canada and Japan. The six included Al Haq and Addameer.
A detailed investigation conducted by Israeli authorities revealed extensive information as to how the PFLP raised funds through a network of institutions, acting under the guise of human rights organizations, including through the six proscribed entities.
The aim of this network is to raise and funnel donations from abroad to fund PFLP activities, including its acts of terror. The network of PFLP institutions operated under the guise of humanitarian aid and human rights activists, receiving funding in millions from governments that are UN Member States.
7amleh has been found to collaborate with these Israeli-designated terrorist organizations, and several of its staff appear to have strong links with them, or even work for the two organizations simultaneously.
Al Haq participates in meetings and webinars spearheaded by 7amleh, as does Addameer.
7amleh has hosted Dr. Shatha Odeh, Director General of the Health Work Committees (HWC), at their 2021 annual conference. HWC was declared an illegal terrorist organization by Israel in 2020. According to NGO Monitor, On July 7, 2021, Israel arrested Odeh for her involvement in terror activity.
Furthermore, Ahmad Qadi is listed as the Monitoring and Documentation Officer at 7amleh on his LinkedIn, as well as an Al-Haq employee.
Cathrine Abuamsha, who is the Local Advocacy Manager at 7amleh according to her LinkedIn, was a lawyer for Al Haq until January 2022.
Ola Marshoud is listed as the Digital Security Trainer at 7amleh. Marshoud was sentenced by Israel to seven months imprisonment in 2018 for holding membership in Hamas’s Islamic student bloc, which is a branch of the US-designated Hamas terrorist organization.
Mahmoud Franji, a member of 7amleh’s advisory board since 2015, wrote a “training guide” with the Israeli-designated terror group HWC in 2020.
Nadim Nashif, 7amleh’s Director and Co-Founder, called convicted PFLP airplane hijacker Leila Khaled a “resistance icon.”
In 2020, 7amleh lauded PFLP leader Ghassan Kanafani as a “distinguished Palestinian personality.” Kanafani was the PFLP spokesperson and member of its Political Bureau.
Marwa Fatafta, a member of 7amleh’s Advisory Board, wrote an article idolizing PFLP terrorist Basel al-Araj, the head of a terror cell who was killed in a battle with the IDF in 2017.
Addameer and 7amleh collaborated on a social media campaign to raise awareness and solidarity for Palestinian prisoners, including those imprisoned for terror offenses. An example of one of the campaign’s focuses was Ayman Kurd, who stabbed two Israeli police officers near Herod’s Gate at the entrance to Jerusalem’s Old City on September 19, 2016, seriously wounding a 38-year-old policewoman and moderately injuring her 47-year-old male colleague.
Another terrorist highlighted in the campaign is Marah Bakir who stabbed a Border Policeman at Ammunition Hill in Jerusalem in October 2015.
Mahmoud Adameh, the Digital Media Trainer at 7amleh, has repeatedly glorified Ghassan Kanafani, the PFLP’s former Spokesman
Despite these apparent open ties with terror-supporting elements and shows of support for terrorism, 7amleh’s has a “Trusted Partners” status and maintains a relationship with Meta.
According to Meta’s website, “Meta provides Trusted Partners with funding to support our shared goals of keeping harmful content off our platforms and helping to prevent risk offline.”
Similarly, 7amleh is a member of Twitter’s “Trust and Safety Council” which performs many of the same roles.
7amleh boasts that it actively “contribute[s] to the development and evaluation of Facebook policies. This included policies about peaceful protests, focusing on how violence at public protests is moderated.”
It appears that a terror-supporting organization, with links to organizations involved in terrorism, is tasked with influencing Meta’s algorithm, policies and community guidelines, and receives funding to this end, and is actively trying to impact Meta in a way that could negatively affect Israel.
TPS’ requests for comments from Meta and Facebook were ignored.
